In some systems, a file server is a computing device that provides shared storage of data files to one or more clients on a network. A file system typically provides access to files stored on a storage device to the one or more clients. A file is a collection of data. The shared files on a file server may include any type of data, such as documents, digital images, photos, movies, sound files, databases, or any other type of files. Files are typically stored or placed in a hierarchical directory or subdirectory of a file system.
File systems are being used to store and manage increasingly larger amounts of data stored in greater numbers of files than ever before. File systems store, manage, and track these files using metadata. File systems utilize and manipulate metadata to track the way files are stored, organized, and used by the file system. However, the same metadata may be duplicated in multiple different locations within the file server. Likewise, there may be many different components of the file server involved in creating, storing, and managing this metadata. This complexity results in a performance penalty.